Lalo Gutierrez stepped to the plate with two outs and a runner on third. He was hit by a pitch and so was Loredo, loading the bases for Anthony Hood.

Hood had a patient approach at the plate, forcing the pitcher to throw strikes. Hood was walked and the Bulldogs scored the game winning run.

"We had some trouble hitting the ball and kept leaving runners on bag," Ortiz said. "They hung in there with us and I don't think they should have. We just really needed to get the bats going. When I hit the ball, I was just thinking base hit, let's get on the bag. Small ball is very important and it can cost you the game in win, loss situations."

Bats get going

In the second game of the doubleheader and last game in the series, the Bulldogs hit the ball well, beating Country Christian 10-8.

Culver scored six of their 10 runs in the first inning, hitting the ball extremely well. They scored one run in the fourth inning and one run in the fifth inning to keep a strong lead.

The Bulldogs scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to score their 10th run of the game.

"Defensively, we struggled a bit," said Graves. "We had some crucial errors and they capitalized on those. They also hit the ball better in game two."

The Bulldogs play against their toughest competition this week, the Kennedy Trojans. Kennedy is 16-2 overall, 9-0 in league play and is the No. 2 rated 2A team in the state. Culver has won four games in a row, eight out of their last 10 games and are 8-3 in league play.

"We are not going to change anything up; we are just going to keep practicing hard," said Graves. "The coaches talked about who we are facing a little bit, but if we just play our game, we will be in the game for sure. We don't want to switch things up too much and get the kids to overthink things. It is just another baseball game and baseball is a sport where, whatever teams shows up that day, has the best chance of winning."

The Bulldogs travel to Kennedy Monday, May 6, and Friday, May 10. They host the Trojans at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 5.

"The team has really just been hanging in there and staying positive," said Ortiz. "We don't let each other down and we always keep trying to pick each other up. The team needs to work hard in practice to get ready for Kennedy. We had some great games with them last year, so we all know we can compete with them this year."

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